


better late than never

by WattStalf



Series: soulmates [8]
Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, FUCK, just about as fucked up as you would imagine for the two of them, takashi is a warning in and of himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 15:50:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8850907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: Both Takashi and Haruna are late.





	

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY SO YEAH THIS IS FUCKED UP  
> also god DAMN i hate takashi even writing him im just like ICK FUCKING STOP  
> #harunaniekawadeservedbetter  
> But I thought this could be an interesting concept to try and explore

Takashi Nasujima doesn't know why he isn't given a soul mate, but he isn't. While some of his classmates start getting theirs as early as junior high, he makes it all the way to the end of high school with a blank wrist, and he starts to worry. He worries that he won't have one at all, and that he will end up alone.

The older he gets, the harder it is to impress women, to win them over and to woo them, when most of them already have their soul mate and have no interest in some man they don't know. He is often mocked for how late he is, and there are even a few women here or there that say they hope he never gets one at all.

“A creep who hits on girls who are already spoken for? The world would be better off if you ended up alone!”

However, all research and doctor visits just suggest that he's late. He wouldn't be the first person to not show into early adulthood, even if it is incredibly rare, but Takashi is impatient, and Takashi is lonely. When he begins his teaching career, he watches students as they show up one day, either showing off their wrist or going to every length to hide it, and he is jealous.

He begins to watch the girls during this time, the beautiful ones who are, in his eyes, still just girls in name only, and in every other regard, they are women, and he watches their insecure faces as their friends get soul mates and they wait for their own, and he starts to get very bad ideas. On the internet, he can find any information he needs, including how to nearly-accurately fake a soul mate mark on his wrist. Following the instructions to the letter, he practices names and goes out and tries to find ways to bring it up in conversation with strangers, to make sure that the name looks convincing.

After a while, he gets to the point that no one can tell the difference between his fakes and the real thing, and then, he is ready to begin. He watches and waits for the more insecure girls to become obvious to him, the ones who are desperate enough to fall for a simple trick, and he targets them, cornering them after school.

It doesn't work at first, and girls are naturally put off by him, and his bullshit stories. He doesn't get caught with the few he tries it with, though, because he manages to at least bribe them into keeping quiet with promises of passing grades. Some even promise that they'll come back and apologize to him, if his name ever does show up on their wrist, but he doesn't have any luck with truly convincing them until one girl eats it up completely.

~X~

Haruna Niekawa wants to fall in love. Ever since childhood, she has been fascinated by the idea of a soul mate, and she wants to meet hers more than anything. Her fascination nearly consumes her, and when she enters high school, she hopes that it won't be long now until she finally gets a name on her wrist. After all, she's entering into the average age range soon, and there are so many people at her school that it seems likely, to her, that one of them is her soul mate.

But she never expects her teacher, Mr. Nasujima, to approach her after school one day and ask if he can talk to her privately. She follows him back to the classroom, wondering what he's going to talk to her about, when he pulls up his sleeve suddenly and shows her the name on his wrist.

_Haruna Niekawa_ .

Gasping, she pulls back and pulls up her own sleeve, but her wrist is still blank. She looks to the other one and there is nothing; she looks up at Mr. Nasujima in confusion and he sighs sadly.

“I had hoped that you would have my name too,” he says. “The thing is, I've been waiting a very long time for my soul mate. All through school, even as an adult, people would make fun of me cos I didn't have mine yet! I was starting to lose hope! I don't know why I have your name when you don't have mine, but...but I'm sure stranger things have happened. You believe me, don't you, Niekawa?”

“Please call me Haruna,” she breathes, eyes lighting up. Of course she believes him; of course she believes every word he says, because she wants a soul mate so very badly, and because she feels sorry for him, having to grow up without one. To her, it all makes perfect sense, and she says, “I believe you. I'm so happy I finally found you!”

In that moment, she falls head over heels in love with him.

~X~

Takashi wants to have more fun with his new “girlfriend”, but it isn't long before trouble catches up with him. He's spent more money than necessary, gotten into trouble with loans and such, and if he doesn't do something about that soon, then it's going to lead to a lot of trouble for him. Fortunately, he has a girl so devoted to him that he's sure she'll do anything he asks.

~X~

Saika infects her, reaching into her, clawing through her every cell, and Haruna is lost at first. She is so, so lost, surrounded by words and promises of love and desperate pleads and cries and she can't-

_love you love you love you love you love them love them love you love me I_

-find herself at first, and she can't make sense of anything and feels as though she just might-

_just love love love love love love love you so_

fall apart. In the beginning, and she never knows how much time transpires in the beginning, she is lost until she finds something to hold onto, and somehow, through all of that, she sees her blank wrist and remembers the name that should be there-

_love him love him love_ him

-and she wins.

_soul mate soul mate soul mate love him love him love him takashi love takashi soul mate_

~X~

As her soul mate pushes her family for more money, Haruna listens to the voices infecting her until their words begin to make more sense, until she knows what they are really saying and what she must do. She learns that the only way for her to really love Takashi is to cut him, and she brings a kitchen knife with her to school one day.

He hasn't been talking to her much lately, and doesn't want to see her unless it has to do with money, so she hopes that, if she does what Saika wants her to do, if she lets Saika help her, then he will love her again, completely and totally. She waits until no one else is in the classroom and she corners him, trying to speak to him the words of love that well up inside of her. If all goes well, she hopes that this will be enough to find his name on her wrist.

~X~

Takashi doesn't know what's happening until Haruna pulls out the knife, and he scrambles to get away from her and it isn't enough, and she's closing in on him, and she keeps speaking, but all she's saying is “love”, over and over again, and _why the hell are her eyes red now_ , and he _screams_ , and he's so, so lucky that the teacher in the next classroom hears him or else, or else, or else.

When he is calm enough to think and to speak, he pins it all on her and calls her delusional. He says that she's somehow gotten it into her head that the two of them have a relationship when they don't, and that she's been stalking him and tried to hurt him when he told her that there couldn't be anything between them. No one wants to do anything that might damage the reputation of the girl, so his story is taken at face value and Haruna is transferred to another school.

Takashi already had the good sense to clean his wrist, so when she begins telling people that they're soul mates, and their wrists are checked, everyone can clearly see that both of them are completely blank.

~X~

And yet, when he wakes up one morning, Haruna's name is on his wrist again and this time, no amount of washing will make it go away, and even though he's alone and she's gone, he remembers the glint of the knife under the fluorescent lights of the classroom and the unnatural red in her eyes, and he screams.

~X~

“I knew I would get his name someday,” Haruna says to herself, even though she is alone and there is no one to hear her but the voices inside of her, and she hugs her arm to herself, grinning from ear to ear over the name that has finally, belatedly appeared on her wrist.

_Takashi Nasujima_ .

 


End file.
